Middle Ages Tournament! Oh My!

Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye!  All subjects of the Land of Robbins and Land of Barrutia are hereby challenged to attend a tournament in honor of the 4^th Grade Kingdom Xavier! This tournament will take place Tuesday, December 11^th at 6:00 p.m.

 This year we will be doing something different for our winter showcase.   Instead of the traditional winter program, we wanted to showcase something a little bit different this year.  Xavier is such a unique school and the students work so hard in all aspects of their experience at Xavier, so we wanted to showcase something truly special about the 4^th grade!   Both classes will be doing a cumulating activity on our Middle Ages unit in the evening for parents to participate with their students.  Students will come as lords, ladies, and knights to participate in the activities we have planned!  There will be jousting, archery, needlework, ballads, dancing, singing and of course a feast.  The costumes can be very simple or elaborate, depending upon your desire.  I will send home an easy way to create a Middle Ages outfit so all students can be in costume.  Parents may appear as serfs, tournament officials or common people of the kingdom to assist and observe at the tournament!  Following is a link to a  Google Document for you to sign-up to help us as we prepare for this grand event:

https://docs.google.com/a/xaviercharter.org/document/d/13eFoOjz-rx8n5SOn0RpNIWWNs3gDA4-pwrJ9cESuaP0/edit

 We held our first tournament last year and it was so much fun, the only drawback was that many parents were unable to participate due to work schedules.  I think this will be very enjoyable for student and parent alike!  Thank you so much for your willingness to help us out, without you this event would not be possible!

Where has the time gone?

I cannot believe we have only four weeks of school before Christmas Break!  We have so much to do in order to be on target!  In order to finish Middle Ages before Christmas we are going to begin it next week and not start a new essay until we finish our geology unit.  This is what you can expect in the upcoming week:

·         Math – negative numbers and a continued review of previous concepts some of the students have not mastered yet.

·         Grammar – parts of speech now include articles, nouns, pronouns, verbs and helping verbs.  Next week we will spend a lot of time on contractions.

·         Excellence in Writing – we will finish up our current essay and hold off on starting a new one until we finish our science unit.

·         Science – we have about 4-5 days left in our geology unit.  We will be finishing up on volcanoes tomorrow, starting mountain building, rocks and weathering and erosion with a test on Friday.

·         History – Middle Ages – We will finish this before we go to break and you can expect to see a Middle Ages Tournament.  Students will dress in Middle Ages garb, take part in events seen during a Middle Ages Fair or Tournament, dance, sing and of course feast!  Please be on the lookout for a sign-up sheet to volunteer or donate items for this event.

·         Literature – Pollyanna – I would like to finish this book by the end of the week.  I know it won’t happen, but I can hope! 

·         Greek and Latin – we should have a new test when we return from Thanksgiving Break

We will be very busy in the next week! 

REMEMBER VOLCANOES ARE DUE ON WEDNESDAY!  If you wish to join us for the volcano event, we will be doing this with the other 4^th grade class and the 3^rd graders watching us on Wednesday at 10:30. 

Fanatical Factoring Fourth Graders!

Fanatical Factoring Fourth Graders!

Wow!  I am so happy with the accomplishments of our class.  Factoring is a very difficult concept and for the most part our 4^th graders rocked it!   We will continue our study of factoring this week by learning about prime and composite numbers, common factors, and then my favorite: finding the missing factor!  I have been known to get so excited about this particular lesson that the whole class misses recess because we are having so much fun in math!  Let’s see if that happens this year. 

We will be learning about Mount Blanc and Mt. Everest this week.  We will be comparing the heights of the mountains we have learned so far and making a graph.  We should finish up and be ready to test on Thursday or Friday.  The next unit will be our geology unit where we will learn about rocks, mountain formations, plate tectonics earthquakes and volcanoes, to name a few things. 

We are moving along in literature with Pollyanna.  I expect to finish it in about three weeks and then we will begin Robin Hood about the same time as we begin the Middle Ages in history.

Our class would like to welcome the newest member of the Xavier Charter School Family, Kyler!  She joined our class on Monday and will be a welcome addition to 4^th grade!  We also have a new bundle of joy in Scout’s home!  Welcome to the new baby brother.  I hope you all have a great week, I know we will in 4^th grade!

I think we have arrived!

Is it really the second week of October?  My how time flies!  We have spent quite a bit of time learning how to be 4^th graders in my classroom.  I think for the most part we have it!  It is very important to me to have a peaceful and structured learning environment.  I actually pledge this to my students every day when I say the Xavier Teacher Creed.  It states, “I accept the responsibility to create a learning environment conducive to optimum achievement academically, socially, and emotionally.”  To me this means I must do whatever I can to help create a place where students can thrive.   With the occasional exception my class has learned how to listen carefully and quietly while I am teaching and to participate in the discussions at the appropriate times.  I am pleased with the progress we have made!

Now that we have gotten to know each other you should start to see us fly!  Starting tomorrow we will begin the following units:

·         Math – factoring (it is so important that your student knows their multiplication and division facts in order to do this, please work with them at home to make sure they don’t get frustrated)

·         History/Geography – mountains of the world

We will continue with the following:

·         Grammar – nouns, we will be doing possessive nouns this week

·         Excellence in Writing -  this will be our final week of key word outlining

·         Pollyanna – we will have our first quiz this week

·         Greek and Latin – students that did not get 100% on the last quiz will re-take it this week

Thank you for all your support on Limeaides for Learning!  I hope our project funds tomorrow, but if you are willing to vote again it can’t hurt!  Here is the link:  http://www.limeadesforlearning.com/teachers/view/1232750/default/840888

Volunteer Opportunities:

I could use help with grading some multiplication papers and doing flashcards with kids.  If you are interested please let me know!  Thank you!

Limeaides for Learning!

Sonic is running a campaign to help public school teachers obtain grants for materials and equipment that are needed in their classrooms.  I am currently working on a project that will give our classroom some much needed supplies and equipment.  The project includes a larger projector screen to allow me to project larger images the students can see more clearly, construction paper (without this grant we will be out before December), 11 x 17 paper to do story charts on, and two electric pencil sharpeners  (when our rebuilt one breaks we won't have one). 

Sonic will fund projects every week based on the number of votes that are received on the projects.  I would really appreciate your help by having you vote for our project daily!  You can also make purchases at Sonic and get bonus codes to earn additional votes, but you don't have to do that to be able to help.  Here is how you can help:

Participation is easy and this year there are three ways to cast your vote at LimeadesForLearning.com

• Anyone with a valid email address can go online and vote for their favorite teacher's project once per day.
• Get two extra votes with any SONIC purchase. Vote codes are provided on the bag sticker.
• Vote online 10 times and get two extra votes. Vote codes will be sent via email.
• Repeat the process once a day to help your favorite project get enough votes to be funded!

Repeat the process once a day to help your favorite project get enough votes to be funded!

You can follow this link to our classroom project:  http://www.limeadesforlearning.com/teachers/view/1232750/teacher/840888

Your support is very appreciated!

Weekly Update

This past week saw us settling into the routine of 4^th grade.  We managed to at least begin each of our first units.   We even had a few quizzes and tests.  I have entered all of the grades in Power School.  Please make sure you check that on at least a weekly basis.  I try very hard to have all grades from the previous week entered by Sunday evening.  You will see an explanation on most assignments and comments on your child’s score if I felt that would be helpful for you to understand the grades.  In general, anything that is blue in Power School can be clicked on to get further information.  If you are unable to log into Power School please contact the office for your log in information.  As you spend time reviewing your child’s grades, please do not panic if they have a low grade in one subject.  My advice to you is to monitor that grade over the next couple of weeks before you worry too much about it.  We have lots of grades in my class and right now one poor grade will cause the overall grade to be artificially low.  Understand that as more grades are entered that poor score will have less of an impact on the final grade.  If you see that the poor grades are staying pretty constant, then that is something to start wondering about. 

Fourth grade is a huge transition year as we complete our years in Grammar School and prepare for the world of the Logic School.  We are learning we will work on the entire year, and it takes some students longer than others to get there.  Students will be completing their agenda’s daily, if they don’t finish something in class they will need to complete it at home and turn it in the following day.  Assignments that are due beyond the next day will be written on the “What’s Due Board” at the back of the room to remind students to get them finished and turned in on time.  I will also spend a lot of time modeling how to keep your notebooks organized during the first semester.  This is in anticipation of them being able to do it automatically during the second semester.  Of course I will be looking over their shoulders and reminding them along the way!  You will be amazed at how much your 4^th grader will grow this year, it surprises me every year!   Have a fabulous week, the fourth grade is planning on it!

We made it through the first week as 4^th graders with flying colors!  Our week was fabulous and I am just as excited to get started with the curriculum as the kids are.  We spent last week learning about Great Expectations and classroom procedures.  Our group is very eager to participate, therefore we did not get as far as I had anticipated.  We had the first of many “Great Conversations” in 4^th grade by talking about what a “Great Conversation” is.  To begin this concept we discussed that a conversation takes more than one person sharing thoughts and ideas about a subject.  The interchange cannot be one sided, or it is not a conversation it is a monologue.  The students agreed that input from everyone in the class is valuable to the discussions we have.  Some of our conversations this week included discussions of several picture books and how the characters in these books modeled or did not model the Eight Expectations for Living.  Take just a minute and extend the conversation in your home.  Ask your 4^th grader what expectations Molly Lou Melon demonstrated and what expectations her new classmates practiced.  They can also show you their Eight Expectations for Living Book that we will be working on throughout the year.

I have a very full week planned for our class!  We will finish up our conversations of last week with discussions on being a good citizen and proper use of school supplies in order to make them last through the year.   Following is a brief overview of our week:

·         Math – whole numbers

·         Grammar – nouns and articles

·         Excellence in Writing – keyword outlines

·         Literature – Pollyanna

·         History/Geography- maps and globes

·         Greek & Latin – 3 new roots

·         Dictation – first list - See Dictation/Spelling page on the blog

·         Book Reports – see the blog under Student Book Review

The students will bring home their first homework packet Monday.  Make sure you look on the Homework page on the blog to read about homework expectations for 4^th grade.  I look forward to a busy week with your wonderfully motivated students!

 

Dear Parents,
 

A new year is beginning, and we are expecting great things from our fourth graders!  As you probably know we are using the Core Knowledge Sequence as a guide for our instruction.  If you would like to know what your child will be learning this year, the book What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch, Jr. is a wonderful resource.

Our curriculum is so rich!  We will be studying classical works of literature such as Pollyanna, Gulliver’s Travels, Robinson Cursoe, Robin Hood, and Treasure Island.  We will also be studying poems and a collection of sayings and phrases. Our geography and history time will be spent learning about the Middle Ages, the Rise of Islam, China’s Dynasties, African Tribes of the Middle Ages, the American Revolution, and the Writing of the Constitution.  In addition, we will be studying the major mountains of the world.  In science, we will explore topics such as geology, meteorology, the circulatory and respiratory systems, chemistry and electricity.  We are excited to be using the Singapore Math program.  This innovative program works to empower students to deeply understand mathematical concepts and apply them to practical situations.

Each of us has created a classroom blog to help you stay informed about what is happening in our classrooms.  This will become a very valuable tool for you to be a partner in your child’s 4^th grade education.  This resource will be continually updated as new information becomes important to share with families.  Please spend some time becoming familiar with the site so the resources can become as valuable to you as they were intended.

Homework is required at Xavier and you can anticipate approximately 40 minutes of homework each Monday through Thursday night, your child should also be reading 20 minutes per evening.  In addition to the regular homework your child will have several at home projects throughout the course of the school year.  Please refer to the blog for important details regarding the homework in 4^th grade. 

Once again, we are looking forward to working with you and your child this school year.  If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.  Email is the easiest way stay in touch.  Mrs. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@xaviercharter.org and Mrs. Barrutia at dbarrutia@xaviercharter.org.  If you need to reach us by phone we both prefer you contact us on our personal cell phones, leaving a message on the school system has not been a very effective method of reaching us in the past. We look forward to starting this year!

 Sincerely,

 Mrs. Robbins    420-1198
 Mrs. Barrutia    421-5100